There is no reason NOT to shop lo locally as long as reputable suppliers are available. That means skip the box stores and Costco and look at actual plant nurseries. Often, larger, more mature plants at lower prices. The biggest issue is to do your research first as not all fruit trees are suited to all areas. Your local extension office should be able to supply lists of recommended varieties for your specific area with suitable rootstocks, appropriate chill times, ripening times and suitable pollination partners.

" Does Dave Wilson Nursery sell direct to consumer? Probably not. "

Correct :-) But they frequently supply other mail order nurseries. Two that I have had great results with (large selection; excellent customer service) are Raintree Nursery and Burnt Ridge Nursery, both located in Washington state. And both focused almost exclusively on fruits and berries.

If you end up purchasing online, I really like Trees of Antiquity. I've had creat experiences with ordering from them a couple of time.

I also had good luck with Willis Orchards, but their reviews are hit or miss (so I may have just gotten lucky).

The biggest issue is to do your research first as not all fruit trees are suited to all areas

This remains a critical point - it does not matter what a particular supplier is like otherwise if they do not have the specific fruit cultivars that have been proven wherever you happen to be located. (With the latter detail being something your original post does not provide).

I live 60 miles north of San Francisco. Can grow most anything. I want to get an italian Prune Plum. Or French??? Anyway I have 2 Santa Rosa Plums both in poor shape, dying and people including me seem to think they are not the best anyway. They can get sweet on the outer part but not sweet near the pit. A neighbor in the past had prune plums which were really great. Those trees are long gone, but they had let us pick from their trees. This was prune country in the 1940's. I remember them being great to eat right off the tree and the pit would be loose inside.

prune plum, and also Elephant heart plum I have been recommended to get. I will remove the two Santa Rosa plums.

Also want an apricot because I've seen one growing about 10 miles to the south, really productive and the fresh fruit was great. The winter lows are lower where I live compared to where i saw that apricot growing but I figure it will be OK. I get many frosts here, have already had several, mid to high 20's. Ususally there is a day or two of winter low that can get near 10 degrees.

mainly I want to get better plums, especially a smaller prune type. I already have apple trees. Maybe I could use another, Granny Smith. I also have persimmons and wouldn't mind a couple more persimmon trees, I can sell those got $20 yesterday for a small box so they are earning their keep.

You can't grow avocado where I am because the winter lows prevent fruit, just get a healthy looking tree with no fruit. Further south where they don't get the freezing temps I've seen some loaded avocado trees. I'd have one if I could.

I am not necessarily a fan of local nurseries. Good ones have closed. What I see is they now want to charge a premium. They all seem to get their trees from Dave Wilson anyway. Many online sellers also seem to get Dave Wilson and forward them to you. Might as well do it that way.

Due no doubt to the importance of the California orchard industry California Cooperative Extension has tons of information about growing fruit there. If you have not looked at the web pages of the Extension branch covering your part of the state already those may have something of relevance. For instance up my way there was a fruit variety trials program conducted for some years at an experiment station located in Skagit County; enthusiasts still maintain a publicly accessible, labeled bush and tree fruit collection on the site where visitors can see how each kind is performing.

Willis Orchards apparently does not ship to California.

Suppose if I want to make an online purchase I should be looking at the west coast online retailers anyway. Sorry I didn't mention that in the beginning.

Need to figure which prune plum to get.

Grow zone

9b

The average annual extreme

minimum temperature is: 25 to 30 °F

But we can easily get down to about 10 F